Staghorn...

CassCats · May 9, 2020

Pretty sure this lovely algae is staghorn. I welcome it on hardscape, but not on my plants.

Aside from trimming off affected plant leaves, how do i keep it controlled?

Its in my 20 gal planted tank, showing up on my wisteria leaves.

Lights are on about 8 hours. Lighting is an Aqueon T8 Full Spectrum bulb.
Ferts: Flourish 1x a week.
Water changes 50-70% weekly.

Tank is moderately planted.

Filter: Topfin 75

Stock: 2 mollies, 5 skirt tetras, 9 paleatus corydoras, 2 ghost shrimp, nerite snail, ramshorn snails. (I am aware mollies arent so good for my water, this stock isnt permanent)

CassCats · May 10, 2020

How do i control this algae?

utahfish · May 10, 2020

Decrease lighting either intensity or frequency. Could go 7 hrs instead of 8.
Also decrease freeding. If feeding twice a day go to once, if once a day go every other day. Tomm barr suggests leading cause of any algae is inconsistent or too much CO2.
Algae is always a sign of a nutrient/ light imbalance staghorn algae usually a CO2 imbalance so figure out where the CO2 light imbalance is in your tank.

CassCats · May 10, 2020

I dont keep co2 on my tanks, i need a guide for dummies for that one lol

But i will reduce the lighting if thats a cause.
I feed daily. I can reduce this a bit too.

DwarfCichlidLvr · May 10, 2020

NCaquatics said:
I dont keep co2 on my tanks, i need a guide for dummies for that one lol

they should make a book on that!

utahfish · May 10, 2020

NCaquatics said:
I dont keep co2 on my tanks, i need a guide for dummies for that one lol

But i will reduce the lighting if thats a cause.
I feed daily. I can reduce this a bit too.

All tanks will have natural CO2 in it from organics breaking down, so if one has a lot of organics in tank rotting food plant matter ect will create co2 which in excess cpuld lead to co2 but im not sure how much natural co2 in a tank leads to algae. Either way decreasing light and feeding performing consistent water changes will help.

CassCats · May 10, 2020

utahfish said:
All tanks will have natural CO2 in it from organics breaking down, so if one has a lot of organics in tank rotting food plant matter ect will create co2 which in excess cpuld lead to co2 but im not sure how much natural co2 in a tank leads to algae. Either way decreasing light and feeding performing consistent water changes will help.

Ahaaaa there we go.
I had a mass die off of salvinia in this tank a week and a half ago. Could that have caused or contributed to the issue?

utahfish · May 10, 2020

NCaquatics said:
Ahaaaa there we go.
I had a mass die off of salvinia in this tank a week and a half ago. Could that have caused or contributed to the issue?

Maybe im not quite sure. Normally plants will take all the extra nutrients they can get.
I know some people have noted that dosing iron has killed floating plants like frog bit and i onow that some have noted that if condensation from the hood drips onto salvinia it can melt it.

CassCats · May 10, 2020

I kill floating plants just looking at them, so im not too concerned they died off. They thrive in my unheated snail jars.

Could have also been the filter current blowing them all over the place too.

Either way, thanks. Ive reduced the lighting and tomorrow ill skip feeding

Retired Viking · May 10, 2020

The other things you could do is increase the amount of water you change every week and add a few fast growing floating plants to absorb the excess nutrients in the water. I always throw in a nerites snail or two just to be safe

CassCats · May 10, 2020

Retired Viking said:
The other things you could do is increase the amount of water you change every week and add a few fast growing floating plants to absorb the excess nutrients in the water. I always throw in a nerites snail or two just to be safe

I had salvinia in there. It died.

I change 50-70 weekly on this tank.

And theres a nerite and a bunch of ramshorns in there already. Lazy nerite keeps glass great, ignores the plants!! Haha

CassCats · May 16, 2020

Okay so...

This staghorn is only getting WORSE. Not better. Ive fed less every other day only, reduced amount of light, and its just growing more. And only on my wisteria!

Im about ready just to throw out my wisteria lol

Or tear it all down and redo completely.

DwarfCichlidLvr · May 16, 2020

NCaquatics said:
This staghorn is only getting WORSE. Not better. Ive fed less every other day only, reduced amount of light, and its just growing more. And only on my wisteria!

Im about ready just to throw out my wisteria lol

Or tear it all down and redo completely.

too bad

Id get rid of that. Replace it with water sprite. They look similar.

Oh dear. We do NOT need this again.

vanalisa · May 16, 2020

utahfish said:
Decrease lighting either intensity or frequency. Could go 7 hrs instead of 8.
Also decrease freeding. If feeding twice a day go to once, if once a day go every other day. Tomm barr suggests leading cause of any algae is inconsistent or too much CO2.
Algae is always a sign of a nutrient/ light imbalance staghorn algae usually a CO2 imbalance so figure out where the CO2 light imbalance is in your tank.

Interesting.

AdoraBelle Dearheart · Aug 22, 2020

How's the staghorn going? I spotted some on my crypt leaves yesterday, and I already had hair and green beard algae to deal with. Same deal in that I clean the substrate well and filters often, large weekly water changes... but I probably overfeed the tank at times.

I just did a search for staghorn algae hoping to find out how to deal with it, and yours was the first post to pop up

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